of Mdlle Lange. Her great personal charms
led the adventurer Jean, comte du Barry, to take her into his house in
order to make it more attractive to the dupes whose money he won by
gambling. Her success surpassing his expectations, his hopes took a
higher flight, and through Lebel, valet de chambre of Louis XV., and the
duc de Richelieu, he succeeded in installing her as mistress of the
king. In order to present her at court it was necessary to find a title
for her, and as Count Jean du Barry was married himself his brother
Guillaume offered himself as nominal husband. The comtesse du Barry was
presented at court on the 22nd of April 1769, and became official
mistress of the king. Her influence over the monarch was absolute until
his death, and courtiers and ministers were in favour or disgrace with
him in exact accordance with her wishes. The duc de Choiseul, who
refused to acknowledge her, was disgraced in 1771; and the duc
d'Aiguillon, who had the reputation of being her lover, took his place,
and in concert with her governed the monarch. Louis XV. built for her
the magnificent mansion of Luciennes. At his death in 1774 an order of
his successor banished her to the abbey of Pont-aux-Dames, near Meaux,
but, the queen interceding for her, the king in the following year gave
her permission to reside at Luciennes with a pension. Here she led a
retired life with the comte de Cosse-Brissac, and was visited there by
Benjamin Franklin and the emperor Joseph II., among many other
distinguished men. Having gone to England in 1792 to endeavour to raise
money on her jewels, she was on her return accused before the
Revolutionary Tribunal of having dissipated the treasures of the state,
conspired against the republic, and worn, in London, "mourning for the
tyrant." She was condemned to death on the 7th of December 1793, and
beheaded the same evening. Her contemporaries, scorning her low birth
rather than her vices, attributed to her a malicious political role of
which she was at heart incapable, and have done scant justice to her
quick wit, her frank but gracious manners, and her seductive beauty. The
volume of _Lettres et Anecdotes_ (1779) which bears her name was not
written by her.

See E. and J. de Goncourt, _La du Barry_ (Paris, 1880); C. Vatel,
_Histoire de Madame du Barry_ (1882-1883), based on sources; R.
Douglas, _The Life and Times of Madame du Barry_ (London, 1896).

DU BARTAS, GUILLAUME DE SALUSTE, SEIGNEU